Yvonne Drewry

Yvonne Drewry studied at Edinburgh College of Art. Training under William George Gillies, John Maxwell and Joan Hassall is recorded. Maggi Hambling is recorded as having studied under Yvonne Drewry. The recorded working language is English. Residence is recorded at Trimley St Martin and Tuddenham. Employment is recorded with Amberfield School.

• Name — Yvonne Drewry • Birth Name — Yvonne Marjorie Drewry • Born — 18 February 1918 • Birthplace — Brentford, Middlesex, England • Died — 9 August 2007 • Place of death — Woodbridge, Suffolk, England • Education — Southport College of Art, Edinburgh College of Art • Movement — 8+1 Suffolk Group

Yvonne Marjorie Drewry was born in Brentford, Middlesex, to Alfred F. Vere Drewry (1888-1980) and his wife Ada, née Anniss (1883-1965). Her father ran a motor parts shop on Deansgate in Manchester. Her uncle James Sidney Drewry was an engineer and co-founder of Shelvoke and Drewry, one of the UK's largest manufacturers of municipal waste wagons and fire engines. After studying at Southport College of Art, in 1939 Drewry won an Andrew Grant scholarship of £120 a year for three years to train at the Edinburgh College of Art, where she studied under William George Gillies, John Maxwell and book illustrator Joan Hassall.

Drewry was a prolific artist, working in oil, watercolour, and pen and ink. She was also a notable print-maker and typographer. Her other work included woven textiles and handicrafts. Her work was exhibited regularly in Suffolk galleries, including an annual exhibition at the Denis Taplin Gallery in Woodbridge, Gallery 44 in Aldeburgh, Mall Galleries, Gainsborough's House, Sudbury, Wolsey Art Gallery, Ipswich, and in her own studio, and featured several times in local press articles; she also exhibited internationally and made sales in France and the US, and is licensed through Bridgeman Images. From 1985 she was part of the 8+1 Suffolk Group, a group of nine artists that teamed up together to manage and present their own exhibitions. Their first show was at Broughton Gallery, Lanarkshire in August 1985. Her main subjects were landscapes and seascapes celebrating the Suffolk countryside, along with still life pictures of flowers, plants and trees, including those growing in her own garden; she also produced occasional portraits. Her work was mainly figurative, although her later works were much more abstract in character, using vivid colours and broad brushstrokes. She is mentioned in Patrick Trevor-Roper's influential book The World Through Blunted Sight: An inquiry into the influence of defective vision on art and character (1970) as having different colour perception in each eye. Her works are rarely titled, and whilst the landscapes are clearly recognisable, they are not usually particularly well-known views, although she did paint Snape Maltings and Shingle Street. She was highly commended in the 1994 Laing Art Competition. She generally worked from life and travelled around Suffolk and Norfolk in a Fiat 238 camper van seeking suitable subjects. • Illustration — Watercolour by Yvonne Drewry, 1974 • Illustration — Linocut by Yvonne Drewry, 1976

Working largely on board, her oil paintings used a broad impasto with vivid colours. The earlier work is mainly figurative, but her later works were more impressionistic and dramatic. They were generally signed "Yvonne Drewry" and the year in oil paint.

The watercolour paintings were small, many being pen and ink drawings tinted with colour wash. They were generally signed "Yvonne Drewry" and the year in pen.

Drewry produced her own exhibition catalogues and posters in letterpress, and also created her own Christmas cards, which were usually multi-coloured linocuts, showing the influence of Joan Hassall. She also produced hand woven cloth on a floor loom, and made textile items such as appliqué cushions, and produced smaller craft items sold in her annual Sales of Work.

In 1941, Drewry married Robert Alexander (Bob) Campbell (1916-2008), whom she met at Edinburgh College of Art. In 1942 they moved to Trimley St Martin in Suffolk, where they had four children. Drewry and Campbell had separated by 1968, when Campbell emigrated to Canada. Although known in her personal life after marriage as Mrs. Campbell, she always painted and exhibited under the name Yvonne Drewry. In 1977 Drewry moved briefly to Tuddenham St Martin, before settling in Hollesley in 1980, where she lived until 2004. Suffering from Alzheimer's disease, she spent her last years in a nursing home in Woodbridge, and died in 2007 aged 89. Drewry Way, on The Lilacs housing development in Trimley St Martin, is named after her.

• 1944 "Young Liverpool Artists", Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool • 1956 The Australian Women's Weekly Portrait Prize for 1956 • 1981 Gainsborough House, Sudbury • 1984 Denis Taplin Gallery, Woodbridge • 1985 Broughton Gallery, Lanarkshire • 1991 Laing Art Competition, Mall Galleries • 1994 Laing Art Competition, Mall Galleries (Highly Commended) • 1995 Ipswich Open, Wolsey Art Gallery • 1996 Denis Taplin Gallery, Woodbridge